'You start with a chicken...' we did get a couple roosters once and wrung their necks, plucked, gutted them, and put them on a spit...it was quite interesting, to say the least. There is nothing wrong with getting a fryer or two from the grocery store, just keep them on ice until you need them and DON'T STORE THEM WITH ANY THING ELSE, words to live by. It might be best to 'butterfly' (cut the spine out, cut two small holes in the skin near the thighs and tuck the leg knuckles in) them at home. Cut a 'green' stick in the shape of a Y about as thick as your thumb, whittle the ends sharp. Season the bird with salt and pepper, skewer it as best you can on the two ends and stick the longer end in the ground, down wind, near the fire. Rotate the stick once in a while to roast it evenly, it 'll take 1-2 hours.
Then place some sweet potatoes around the edge of the coals rotating them once in a while, DON'T BURN! about 1-2 hours.
When everything is about 1/2 way done, put some med. size onions (skins on)next to the 'taters, rotating also, DON'T BURN!
Yes, I could afford to do this 'cause my feet and knees didn't like me lugging around a rifle and tromping through the woods. Veggies out of season is no big deal unless you get in to cooking competitions, corn and beans don't look very good in the spring time. I've done biscuits from scratch on the side of a crate, but its a pain in the ass, make a bunch at home at the end of the week and put them in a sack. Oh yeh, You make them, not your mommy, girlfriend, or wife. You don't need to be a chef, but everyone does need to know how to cook.
Next time: Panfried parsnip and country ham patties, with a little chowchow on the side. YEEHHH, God I love cooking!

Below are a few period recipes I've prepared in the field while campaigning.

Apples.. eaten raw, w/ or w/out skins w/ Hardtack oar'deuvre.

Apples, sliced and cored tossed into the canteen half w/ the salt pork and some taters. Fried until they're all dead.

Corn, still in the husk... toss into the fire and watch until they finish steaming. If they start on fire and the kernals are burnt... give em to the reb prisoners and be happy w/ the govt pilot bread.

Camp pot: Sweet taters sliced very thin, salt pork sliced thin, add a handful of dried apples, a couple turnips, cabbage and onions sliced fine if you can "acquire" them. Add the residual coffee beans from the coffee pot and a handful of salt. Cover w/ water and cook until it looks done or until you have to hit the march.

"Happy soldiers Breakfast" Two egges stolen, a handful of flour "borrowed" and a couple parsnips donated from the ground. Take a bit of the issue salt horse and grease the pan. Slice it real thin like and fry it up like bacon. Eat the bacon as you add the sliced parsnips to the pan. Make sure you don't spill no grease. Once the parsnips is soft eat em up and toss in the eggs and flour and bake into a bread. Damn site better than nothing and plenty filling.

The only man who ever threw away his spent coffee beans is a man who never went hungry. We saved them and fried them up with some salt pork. A bit crunchy and bitter, but was something for the stomach.

Men w/ experiance in the Armies of the Continent generally boiled their rations thus making soups, men from the US who had never served preffered to fry their food. The men who ate soup were generally healthier.

Ball Corporation. Ball Blue Book: The Complete Guide to Home Canning and Freezing.

Barchers, Suzanne I. and Patricia C. Marden. Cooking Up U.S. History: Recipes and Research to Share with Children.

Benning, Lee Edwards. The Cook's Tale: Origins of Famous Foods and Recipes.

Bernstein, Braun, et al. American Girls Pastimes: Addy's Cookbook.

Braun, Evert, et al. American Girls Pastimes: Kirsten's Cookbook.

Fisher, Abbie. What Mrs Fisher knows about Old Southern Cooking. Her story is an interesting one, she was a slave who moved into San Fran after the war... her cooking took the city by storm. She was illiterate so she dictated the recipes. It is the first known recipe book authored by a black woman

Child, The American Frugal Housewife

Green, Janet, Ruth Hertzberg, and Beatrice Vaughan. Putting Food By.

Ichord, Loretta Frances. Skillet Bread, Sourdough, and Vinegar Pie.
Exploring History Through Simple Recipes Series which includes: Cowboy Cooking, Cooking on the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Civil War Cooking: Union And Civil War Cooking: Confederacy

Kreidberg, Marjorie. Food on the Frontier: Minnesota Cooking from 1850 to 1900, with Selected Recipes. Oldest Church Cookbook the better half has ever seen.

Livingston, A.D. Cast-Iron Cooking.

Mitchell, Patricia B. Just Naturally Sweet. another by the same author is: Union Army Camp Cooking.

Spaulding, Lily May and Jon Spaulding, eds. Civil War Recipes: Receipts from the Pages of Godey's Lady's Book.

Ririe, Robert L. Doin' Dutch Oven Inside and Out.

Walker, Barbara M. The Little House Cookbook.

Anything by Mrs Stowe or Mrs Beecher as both had authored period recipe books. Mrs Stowe was more well known for her help books than she was for Uncle Toms Cabin. Some people bought it thinking it was another help book.

Another good book (which I am in the process of reading) is What They Ate: A Culinary History of the Civil War by William C. Davis. There are some excellent recipes in the back of the book, although some may not be condusive to cooking over an open fire.

Last night, I finished reading the William C. Davis book A Taste for War: The Culinary History of the Blue and Gray. Y'all will be pleased to know that, in the conclusion of that book, he mentions our very own Civil War Interactive recipe section as a great source of information!!

Nice collection of books & recipes i found , thanks for sharing... i read about this Creative Cooking with and Without Recipes... but never found this kind of information which you have written.... for that one needs good creativity....